Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Holding a Valuable Item Belonging to a Home Exchange Partner 'Hostage'??

'My cousin and her family are doing it (exchanging homes). They left their beautiful home in the San Diego area and exchanged it with another family in New Zealand. I told my cousin that they should keep something of value from the New Zealand home until they come back to check on their house. Then, after all is well, they could mail it back to the New Zealand people. She just laughed.'- Donn's Center of the Universe

Being concerned about having home exchangers in your home in case they break or take your stuff is a common worry that many people have at first. Home exchange isn't for everyone, but those who do it soon realise that their potential exchange partners will have exactly the same concerns about them - until they get to know each other. So if there's likely to be hostage taking of a valuable item, they might take something of yours hostage too (although I've never heard of anyone actually doing this!)

By the time a home swap takes place, both parties to the exchange will have corresponded often and should by this time feel that they have got to know and trust each other, and not that they are letting 'strangers' stay in their home but rather that friends are caring for it while they're away.

Home Swaps Between Vegetarians: Finding Suitable Exchanges

Q: Is there any way to ensure that the family with whom one exchanges homes is vegetarian (no meat, poultry, fish or essences thereof)? Since you seem to have vegetarian sympathies, I just thought I'd ask. I don't want anyone cooking or eating meat in our home. - Joy, California

A: Some Home Base Holidays members indicate in their listings that they are vegetarians but, if they don't add that they will only consider offers from other vegetarians, it is likely that they are including this information as part of their description (home, area, family, jobs, interests) just to give others a sense of the sort of people they are rather than to necessarily restrict their exchange offer to other vegetarians. Even so, by indicating they are vegetarians, this should ensure the issue of whether it is acceptable for exchange partners to bring meat into the home will be discussed before an exchange is agreed.

Just as some non smokers are prepared to exchange with smokers if the smokers agree not to smoke inside the house, some vegetarians will also be happy to exchange with considerate meat eaters (many of whom may now eat very little meat for health reasons) who agree to confine their meat-eating to restaurants while on exchange. Other vegetarians (myself included) would tolerate meat eating/cooking in their homes - as long as their exchange partners undertook to get rid of the evidence at the end of the exchange.

For vegetarians with particular religious or strong moral beliefs who could not consider an exchange with anyone other than vegetarians (or vegans), it is very important to make this clear in an exchange offer. This would, of course, narrow the number of possible exchange partners considerably but at least should ensure contact only from those who are like minded.

Home Exchange Offers: Make the Most of Special Local Attractions

The description of a new Home Base Holidays members' attractive home exchange offer begins:

'Historic village setting only 4 miles from Edinburgh. We have the famous Rosslyn Chapel (of Dan Brown's bestselling book "The Da Vinci Code"), a medieval castle and a 700 year old battlefield site. Lovely hill views. Ideal base for touring Scotland and the north of England.' (read the full description, HE16682).

The Hastings family, from Roslin, Scotland, are in the fortunate position of living in a good location for visiting Edinburgh and for touring, but whose house is also in a village with historic attractions, including one now of topical interest due to the huge popularity of a recently published book. Whether or not Rosslyn Chapel is the last resting place of the Holy Grail, it is bound to attract interest in the Hastings' exchange offer. Fortunately, the family (who are experienced home exchangers), are open to offers - anywhere!

Travel for Kids Website: Article on Home Swaps

'If you'd like to stay in one place for a longish time, but the thought of hotel and restaurant bills is daunting, consider a home swap. It means more room than a hotel at a fraction of the cost, not to mention reducing restaurant meals to a choice, not a necessity!'

Read the full article, including quotes from Home Base Holidays members, on the Travel for Kids website.

Travel for Kids is a family travel guide for planning trips with kids in Europe, North America, South America, and Africa.

BBC Radio Norfolk: Home Exchange Feature on 13 April

Next Wednesday morning, 10.30 am, recent Home Base Holidays member, Christine Collins, will be in the studio of BBC Radio Norfolk to talk about her home exchange experiences. I will also be answering questions on home swapping (by phone).

If you live in the BBC Radio Norfolk broadcast area, do listen in next Wednesday morning. I have taken part in discussions on home exchange holidays on several local BBC radio programmes over the years and they often include a phone in for questions and comments from listeners.

Pets in Residence: Arranging Pet Care During a Home Exchange

Q: Hello from Bendigo, Australia. I enjoy reading your newsletters very much. The one thing that keeps us from offering home exchange is that we have two small poodles. They are a big part of our life!! I wonder if any other readers/members have pets? If so, how do they get around this problem when exchanging? Cheers, Jennifer C.

A: Glad to hear you like reading the newsletters. I do understand how hard it is to leave your poodles - I used to have a little Yorkie and it almost spoiled my holidays to have to leave her behind.

Many Home Base Holidays members have pets and many offer to look after pets and/or request pet care. When you view the full listings on the website, you will see a section, 'Conditions of exchange/miscellaneous'. Look out for those with 'Pet Care Offered'; many of these listings will also include 'Pet Care Required' - so you know you will be dealing with pet lovers when you contact such members with an exchange offer! Note: to limit your search results to only 'Pet Care Offered' listings, tick this option on Advanced Search (you can of course limit the results in other ways too - by country, etc, before doing a search).

As some members will want to take pets along (especially when swapping within their own countries, which makes this easier), you will also see listings which indicate 'No Pets' and can avoid these. Some members will have allergies to pets and it is important to include the information that dogs are normally living in your home even if you can arrange to have them cared for elsewhere while on an exchange.

If you arrange an exchange with a member who is willing to look after your two poodles, you might feel happier (if you have the space) to have an overlap at the beginning of the exchange with your exchange partners arriving a day or so early and staying with you. This would give you the chance to ensure they know your dogs' routine before you leave.

Even great pet lovers may not want the tie of having to be in your home every day to care for your dogs. It's a good idea to offer to arrange 'relief' pet care for short periods when they may want to travel away from your home.